Station #7: A Place For My Stuff CONTEXT Comedian George Carlin was an American comedian, social critic, actor, and author.Carlin was noted for his black comedy and his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time. One newspaper called Carlin “The Dean of all counterculture comedians.”
In 2004, Carlin was placed second on the Comedy Central Network’s list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians. Carlin’s routines focused on sociocultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for his “contributions to satire.”
One of his most famous bits is titled (A Place For My) Stuff. On the anniversary of Carlin’s passing, the Huffington Post noted: “Think about the absurdity of paying money to store a bunch of stuff. Yet there is so much of it in my home, my car, and hell, even my desk. And it all keeps growing by the day. We contemplate moving, or getting storage, or finding someone to store it, instead of parting with it. George Carlin was right about our obsession and propensity to keep gathering ‘stuff.’ The ridiculousness of our hoarding habits, and what Carlin infers throughout the course of his satirical rant on materialism, would surely make Karl Marx proud.”
Play the three short video clips below. As you watch and listen, be sure to keep informal notes in your pamphlet. What statements, motifs, and themesimmediately strike you as memorable or emotionally impactful? As you watch, keep the following questions in mind. (Do not formally answer them. Use them as a basis for your note-taking.)
What is Carlin’s point? Why might it “make Marx proud”?
What specific lines or inferences from the bit would a Marxist critic want to cite and analyze?
What information is worthy of looking at through Marxist lenses?
Click here to watch the first clip. Click here to watch the second clip. Click here to watch the third clip.
* * * * * Now take note of the still pictures below. Consider the meaning of these images.
Finally, engage in a small-group discussion. Each member of the group must contribute to the process by fulfilling an assigned role. Then, in a thoughtful, “MEL-style” short essay response, answer this question:
What specific information should a Marxist critic consider in an analysis of this text? Using that information as evidence, what meaning can we make of this text, using Marxist tenets as our “lenses”?
CONTEXT
Comedian George Carlin was an American comedian, social critic, actor, and author.Carlin was noted for his black comedy and his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time. One newspaper called Carlin “The Dean of all counterculture comedians.”
In 2004, Carlin was placed second on the Comedy Central Network’s list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians. Carlin’s routines focused on sociocultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for his “contributions to satire.”
One of his most famous bits is titled (A Place For My) Stuff. On the anniversary of Carlin’s passing, the Huffington Post noted: “Think about the absurdity of paying money to store a bunch of stuff. Yet there is so much of it in my home, my car, and hell, even my desk. And it all keeps growing by the day. We contemplate moving, or getting storage, or finding someone to store it, instead of parting with it. George Carlin was right about our obsession and propensity to keep gathering ‘stuff.’ The ridiculousness of our hoarding habits, and what Carlin infers throughout the course of his satirical rant on materialism, would surely make Karl Marx proud.”
Play the three short video clips below. As you watch and listen, be sure to keep informal notes in your pamphlet. What statements, motifs, and themes immediately strike you as memorable or emotionally impactful? As you watch, keep the following questions in mind. (Do not formally answer them. Use them as a basis for your note-taking.)
What is Carlin’s point? Why might it “make Marx proud”?
What specific lines or inferences from the bit would a Marxist critic want to cite and analyze?
What information is worthy of looking at through Marxist lenses?
Click here to watch the first clip. Click here to watch the second clip. Click here to watch the third clip.
* * * * *
Now take note of the still pictures below. Consider the meaning of these images.
Finally, engage in a small-group discussion. Each member of the group must contribute to the process by fulfilling an assigned role. Then, in a thoughtful, “MEL-style” short essay response, answer this question:
What specific information should a Marxist critic consider in an analysis of this text? Using that information as evidence, what meaning can we make of this text, using Marxist tenets as our “lenses”?